Smart Abhyas Government schemes · Smart Abhyas Government schemes 7 •Authentic certified...

1Smart Abhyas Government schemes


GOVERNMENT SCHEMES 01

• Soil Health card

• National Agriculture Market (e-NAM)

• What India is doing to boost the white revolution?

• Atal Pension Yojana (APY) can now be subscribed digitally

• Startup India Virtual Hub launched

• Weather Portal for Power Sector launched

• MERIT (Merit Order Dispatch of Electricity for Rejuve-nation of Income and Transparency) portal launched

•National Biopharma Mission: All you need to know

• Web application for Legal Services to Prisoners

• Mission Parivar Vikas

• National Bamboo Mission has been renamed

• JIGYASA Programme

• Jio Parsi phase-II campaign launched

• Expedition Ganga Mahan

• UDAY covers 97% of Discom Debts: Centre

• 5 States and one UT sign pact with centre on e-Market place

• Make in India yet to spur manufacturing, says panel

• Pradhan Mantri Vaya Vandana Yojana (PMVVY)

• Ajeevika Grameen Express Yojana

• Madhyamin and Uchchtar Shiksha Kosh (MUSK

• UDAN 2.0: UDAN scheme given a boost by the govern-ment

• JAM: 1 billion aadhar numbers linked to 1 billion bank accounts and 1 billion mobile phones

• Ganga clean up the biggest challenge

• UJALA scheme to light up Melaka state in Malaysia

• Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana: Revamp on the cards

• Dairy Processing and Infrastructure Development Fund

• National SC-ST hub conclave

• FAME-India scheme extended by 6 months

• North East Venture Fund

• ‘Zero Hunger’ Programme

• Revamped Khelo India Scheme given the green signal

• ‘Special Industry Initiative for Jammu and Kashmir - • Udaan’ time period extended

• 30 lakh trained in skills, less than 3 lakh get job offers

• Mahamana Express to be flagged off

• First LPG Panchayat in Gujarat

• Soil quality scheme to be bolstered by technology

• Railway Protection Force to extend the implementa-tion of its Child Rescue campaign

• Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana launched

• ‘Divyang Sarathi’ - Mobile application for easy infor-mation dissemination to divyangjans launched

• Platform for Effective Enforcement for No Child La-bour (PENCIL) launched

• Saubhagya Yojana: A to Z details

• Department of Biotechnology unveils special package for North East Region

• Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhayay Vigyan Gram Sankul Pariyojana

• Deendayal Hastkala Sankul

•Sustainable Action for Transforming Human CapitalAndhra Pradesh to name PDS outlets as village malls, bring in private sector


• Andhra Pradesh to name PDS outlets as village malls, bring in private sector

• Consumer durables demand may get a push on gov-ernment’s rural electrification drive

• ‘Paryatan Parv’ - Initiative by Tourism Ministry

• Adopt a Heritage: Apni Dharohar Apni Pehchaan’ ini-tiative by Tourism Ministry

• Pradhanmantri Grameen Digital Saksharata Abhiyan (PMGDISHA)

• Intensified Mission Indradhanush (IMI) launched

• Initiatives of Postal Department

• Stand up India plan slows down: Only 6% bank branches gave loan to SC/ST’s

• Skill India to be boosted by SANKALP and STRIVE schemes

• Sampoorna Bima Gram Yojana

• Government permits banks to sell more small saving schemes

• India’s first Praadhan Mantri Kaushal Kendra for skill-ing in Smart cities

• New initiative SAATHI (Sustainable and Accelerated Adoption of efficient Textile Technologies to Help small Industries

• Bharatmala - Everything you need to know about the Mega project

• Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana to continue as Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yokana - Remunerative Approaches for Ag-riculture and Allied sector Rejuvenation (RKVY-RAFTA-AR)

• Maximum age of joining National Pension Scheme increased from 60 to 65 years under NPS-Private sector

• Deen Dayal SPARSH Yojana to promote philately

• ‘SHe-box’ now in private sector too

• Cabinet approves continuation and restructuring of National Rural Drinking Water Programme

• Saubhagya Web portal launched

• TReDS platform back in focus

• Cabinet approves expansion of an umbrella scheme and introduces a new scheme ‘Pradhan Mantri Mahila Shakti Kendra’

• Cabinet approves continuation scheme on Indian Insti-tute of Corporate Affairs

• Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) on track to achieve its target

• National Power Portal

• Project Saksham3

• Aadi Mahotsav

• National Nutrition Mission given the nod

• DARPAN launched for Financial Inclusion of Rural population

• Online portal ‘NARI’ for women empowerment

• Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme: All that you need to know

• BharatNet Phase 1 complete

• MPLAD scheme to be continued

• Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan : All you need to know

• MEITY launches Cyber Surakshit Bharat to strengthen cyber security

• Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban launches Smart Star Rating for Garbage Free Cities

• UDAN 2.0 to link more airports and helipads

• Scheme for Adolescent girls

• Boost to Atal Pension Yojana

• Budget 2018-19 : Ayushman Bharat programme

• Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthaan Mahaabhiyan (KU-SUM)


• National Health Scheme (NHS)

• Launching Start Up India Ranking frame work

• All Small Savings Schemes may be brought under one umbrella

•Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Scheme to be further continued •Cabinet approves Action Plan for Champion Sectors in Services •Beti Bachao Beti Padao (BBBP) to be implemented directly •Know India Programme : 46th edition •NITI Aayog launches Women Entrepreneurship Plat-form (WEP) •National E-Mobility Programme launched •National Nutrition Mission (NNM) launched • ‘SUVIDHA’ – Rs. 2.50, 100% Oxo-biodegradable Sani-tary Napkin to become available •National Mission for Preservation of Manuscripts

•Cabinet approves continuation of ongoing Urea Subsi-dy Scheme from 2017 till 2020 • LaQshya programme • Ayushman Bharat given the nod • India to be self-reliant in Silk Production by 2020 • Integrated Scheme for Development of Silk Industry : What you need to know • Union Goverment’s Special incentives for new Indus-trial units in Northeast • Pradhan Mantri Vaya Vandana Yojana (PMVVY)


Soil Health Card

About the scheme: •Introduced in an attempt to reduce the inappropriate usage of chemicals in agriculture and raise awareness among the farmers.

•Farmers are issued cards that give them easy access to soil conditions and crop wise recommendations of nutrients and fertilizers required for a healthy produce.

•Soil Health Cards are issued once in every two years.

Expenditure on soil management: •Rs 840 crores have been spent on soil management between 2014-2017 compared to Rs 28 crores spent between 2011-2014.

How do the farmers benefit? •Soil Health Card carries crop wise recommendations of macro nutrients, secondary nutrients, micro nutrients and fertilizers.

•Leads to optimum utilization of soil, water and natural resources.

•Card also suggests corrective measures to be adopted by a farmer to improve soil health and obtain a better and higher yield. Question related to Soil Health Card Scheme Consider the following statements:

The nation-wide ‘Soil Health Card Scheme’ aims at

1. expanding the cultivable area under irrigation. 2. enabling the bank to assess the quantum of loans to be granted to farmers on the basis of soil quality3. checking the overuse of fertilizers in farmlands.

Which of the above statements is/are correct?

a. 1 and 2 only b. 3 only SOLUTION: bc. 2 and 3 only d. 1, 2 and 3

What India is doing to boost the white

revolution? National Kamdhenu Breeding Centre

•Two centres to be established, one in Madhya Pradesh and the other in Andhra Pradesh.

•These centres will have germplasm of exotic cattle and cross bred cattle.

National Gokul Mission

•14 Gokul grams are being established for the develop-ment and conservation of indigenous breeds of cattle.

•The intended purpose is that with improved breed of cows and buffaloes, high quality milch animals, the quantity of and quality of milk and its products are destined to grow.

National Mission on Bovine Productivity

•Introduced to increase milk production and productiv-ity to make dairying profitable.

•Pashu Sanjeevani : Programme for monitoring health of the animal having components such as health card, unique ID card and national database.

•Advanced Breeding Technology: Includes assistive reproductive techniques and improving availability of disease free male bovine.

•National Genomic Centre: To enhance milk production and productivity of indigenous breeds through rapid genetic upgradation

e –Pashudhan Haat

What is e-Pashudhan Haat ?

•One stop portal for Bovine breeders, sellers and buyers with ninimum participation of middlemen.

Government Schemes and Initiatives


•Authentic certified information on availability of ger-mplasm, breed information of indigenous breeds and complete details of each livestock along with photos and information on feed and fodder availability.

•Envisages preservation of diverse indigenous bovine breeds in the country.

National Livestock Mission (NLM):

•Aims at working towards quantitative and qualitative improvement in capacity building of livestock produc-tion methods.

•The scheme aims to protect livestock losses due to untimely death.

•For the first time ever all the districts and animals have been covered under Livestock Insurance Scheme.

Atal Pension Yojana (APY) can now be

subscribed digitally

Some of the Revolutions of Agriculture:Blue revolution Fish productionBrown revolution Lather/non-conventional

(India)/ cocoa productionGolden revolution Fruit/Horticulture/ Hon-

ey productionGolden fiber revolution Jute productionGreen revolution Food grain productionGrey revolution Fertilizer productionRound revolution Potato productionSilver revolution Egg/poultry productionWhite revolution Milk productionYellow revolution Oil seed production

•Verghese Kurien is known as the ‘Father of the White Revolution’ in India.

•His “billion-litre idea”, Operation Flood the world’s largest agricultural dairy development programme.

•Operation Flood, launched in 1966 by India’s National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) trans-formed India from a milk-deficient nation into the world’s largest milk producer, surpassing the USA in 1998

Did you know?

What is the issue?

•Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Author-ity (PFRDA) has now introduced “APY@eNPS” which involves a complete digital enrolment process.

About Atal Pension Yojana (APY):

•Focusses on all citizens in the unorganised sector, who join the National Pension System (NPS) administered by the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Au-thority (PFRDA).

•Under the APY, the subscribers would receive the fixed minimum pension of Rs. 1000 per month, Rs. 2000 per month, Rs. 3000 per month, Rs. 4000 per month, Rs. 5000 per month, at the age of 60 years, depending on their contributions, which itself would be based on the age of joining the APY.

•The minimum age of joining APY is 18 years and max-imum age is 40 years. Therefore, minimum period of contribution by any subscriber under APY would be 20 years or more.

•Atal Pension Yojana (APY) is open to all bank account holders.

•The Central Government would also co-contribute 50% of the total contribution or Rs. 1000 per annum, whichever is lower, to each eligible subscriber account, for a period of 5 years, i.e., from Financial Year 2015-16 to 2019-20

•It is Government of India Scheme, which is adminis-tered by the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority.

•The amount collected under APY are managed by Pen-sion Funds appointed by PFRDA as per the investment pattern specified by the Government. The subscriber has no option to choose either the investment pattern or Pension Fund.

•In case of death of subscriber, the spouse of the sub-scriber shall be entitled for the same amount of pension till his or her death. •Users can enroll through banks and post offices


Startup India Virtual Hub launched

What is the issue?

•Startup India Virtual Hub, an online platform for all stakeholders of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in India to discover, connect and engage with each other was launched by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

About the Virtual Hub:

•The portal will host startups, investors, funds, men-tors, academia, incubators, accelerators, corporates, Government bodies and more.

•The Hub attempts to solve the problem of information asymmetry and lack of access to knowledge, tools, ex-perts, especially in the nascent ecosystems across Tier II and III towns.

•The Virtual Hub is a dynamic and interactive platform that will facilitate learning & development, networking, mentorship, funding,etc. for startups.

•The basic principle behind developing this platform is to aggregate different offerings of the ecosystem and enable discovery by the right audience.

•Startup India Hub has partnered with various organi-zations to on-board entrepreneurs & investors, as well as builds knowledge modules.

•The Hub has also aggregated over 50 relevant gov-ernment schemes/programs. In the next phase, the platform will also aggregate schemes available across various state governments.

What is the issue?

•A Weather Portal has been launched by the Central Government to forecast weather events which may otherwise hamper the day to day functioning of power generation companies.

Weather Portal for Power Sector

launched

Why the need for such a portal?

•Day to day weather variations have an impact on load demand and energy production, transport and distribu-tion management, as well as energy prices.

•Extreme events such as heat waves or cold waves, wind storms or floods can of course have dramatic conse-quences on the production means or the electrical grid of a country including physical damage to the infrastruc-ture.

How will the portal help power generating compa-nies?

•The information available in the Portal regarding weather forecast shall help State Discoms to take pro-active steps regarding short term and medium term management processes and supply planning require-ments and also for better planning for infrastructure availability to ensure cost effective and reliable supply.

What does the portal provide?

Regional Weather Summary:

•This provides Weather Outlook for the Region for the current day and upto next 7 days. Weather stations of Meteorological department have been mapped to the nearest important Electrical Station/ Power Stations in each State.

Nowcast: •It is used to forecast weather for a short period ahead, updated every 3 hours

Weather Forecast: •It is provided for the current day and next 6 days

Weather Warning:•Special Nowcast warning is issued for the next 3 hours.

Radar:•The Doppler Weather Radar generates different dis-plays and derived products of practical utility based on standard algorithms. These displays are updated every 10 minutes.

Satellite Images: INSAT 3D is being used to monitor the Weather of Indi-an Origin. The image is updated every 30 minutes.


Meteogram•The Meteogram at Web-Portal provides plots for Meteorological variables such as Rainfall, Cloud Cover, Temperature, Humidity, Wind, Speed, Sea Level Pres-sure, Indices for Thunderstorm etc. for 10 days with a resolution time of three hours. Each Meteogram pro-vides information for the 10 km radius.

Region Specific Forecast •Fog Forecast, Metar, Bay Bulletin, Coastal Area Bulletin, Cyclone, Port Warning etc.

MERIT (Merit Order Dispatch of Elec-tricity for Rejuvenation of Income and

Transparency) portal launched About the MERIT portal:

•The MERIT Web portal displays extensive array of information regarding the merit order of Electricity procured by State(s) such as daily state-wise marginal variable costs of all generators, daily source-wise power purchases of respective states/UTs with source-wise fixed and variable costs, energy volumes and purchase prices.

•The web-portal also gives information regarding rea-sons for deviation from merit order such as must run conditions, transmission constraints etc.

How will the portal help DISCOMS?

•Information available in the Portal shall help State Discoms to optimize their power procurement in more efficient way leading to lower cost of power to consum-ers.

•It will facilitate must run status for hydro and renew-ables and will promote use of green and clean power more transparently.

•It will also promote competition for lower costs as in-formation will be available to all Stakeholders including generators and utilities for more efficient procurement.

•Since the information will be available to all consum-ers on continuous basis it will create pressure on utili-ties for continued efficiency.

Who has developed the MERIT portal?•Developed by Ministry of Power in association with POSOCO and Central Electricity Authority.

National Biopharma Mission: All you

need to know What is National Biopharma Mission?

•The first ever Industry-Academia mission to accelerate biopharmaceutical development in India

•The program named Innovate in India (i3) will witness an investment of USD 250 million with USD 125 million as a loan from World Bank and is anticipated to be a game changer for the Indian Biopharmaceutical indus-try.

• It aspires to create an enabling ecosystem to promote entrepreneurship and indigenous manufacturing in the sector. Aim of the NBM: •Enable and nurture an ecosystem for preparing India’s technological and product development capabilities in biopharmaceuticals to a level that will be globally com-petitive over the next decade, and transform the health standards of India’s population through affordable product development

Which body will be responsible for implementa-tion of the mission?

•The Mission is to be implemented by Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), a Public Sector Undertaking of Department of Biotechnology

How will India benefit from the mission?

•The Mission will provide a holistic and integrated approach to strengthen and support the entire product development value chain for accelerating the research leads to product development. This will help not only in immediate product development addressing public health needs, but will also help to create an ecosystem which will facilitate development of a continuous pipe-line of products.

•It promises to boost the growth curve for domestic biopharma in India by accelerating the translation of research concepts into viable products, supporting clinical validation, enabling sustainable networks for collaboration between industry and academia, and supporting entrepreneurial ecosystem amongst many others.


•Currently India has only 2.8% share in the global bio-pharmaceutical market, the program would elevate this to 5% resulting in an additional business opportunity of 16 Billion USD.

Where does India fall behind in the pharmaceutical industry?

•Lack of Centers of excellence.

•Less focus on translational research

•Staggered funding

Web application for Legal Services to Prisoners

What is the issue?

•National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) launched a Web Application for free Legal Services to Prisoners and the Legal Services Management System developed through the NIC.

About the application:

•Through this Web Application the State Legal Services Authorities and District Legal Services Authorities shall feed the data for each individual prison inmate in the jails within their jurisdiction, with regard to their being represented through a counsel in the court.

•The software will be able to generate reports showing total number of inmates, number of inmates unrepre-sented, number of inmates represented by legal ser-vices lawyers and number of inmates represented by private lawyers.

•All the above information can be generated State wise, District wise and also in respect of each jail. The reports can also be generated by the period of incarceration, which will in turn generate information with regard to prisoners eligible for bail under Section 436-A Cr.P.C.

Benefit of having such an application:

•The said application shall make the legal services sys-tem more transparent; this application will be univer-sally useful for all the relevant authorities to monitor the grant of legal aid to the prisoners in order to ensure that absolutely no prisoner goes unrepresented right from the first day of his production in the court.

Mission Parivar Vikas

What is the issue?

•Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has launched a new scheme for the improvement in family planning

About the Scheme:

•Mission Parivar Vikas is a new initiative conceived by the Ministry with a strategic focus on improving access through provision of services, promotional schemes, commodity security, capacity building, enabling envi-ronment and intensive monitoring

Objectives of the Scheme: •The main objective of ‘Mission Parivas Vikas’ is to accelerate access to high quality family planning choic-es based on information, reliable services and supplies within a rights-based framework.

•Improve access to contraceptives through delivering assured services, dovetailing with new promotional schemes, ensuring commodity security.

•It will also ensure building capacity (service provid-ers), creating an enabling environment along with close monitoring and implementation.

Implementation of the scheme:

•Initially the scheme will be launched in seven states which include Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Assam

•A total of 146 districts have been identified for imple-mentation in these states

•As part of the programme, the health ministry will dis-tribute a kit containing products of family planning and personal hygiene among newly-wed couples

•The kits will be distributed by ASHA workers to en-courage inter-spousal communication and consensual decision-making on reproductive and sexual health, de-laying the birth of the first child and spacing the second


•‘Saas Bahu Sammelans’ will be held to facilitate im-proved communication between mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law and bridge the gap in their attitudes and beliefs about reproductive and sexual health.

•Special buses called ‘SAARTHI-Awareness on Wheels’ will travel through these districts to generate aware-ness, sensitize the community and disseminate family planning messages

•The Ministry has also launched software “Family Plan-ning Logistics Management Information System (FP-LMIS)” designed to provide information on the demand and distribution of contraceptives to health facilities and ASHAs to strengthen the supply chain management

National Bamboo Mission has been

renamed What is the issue?

•The National Bamboo Mission has been renamed as National Agro-Forestry and Bamboo Mission (NABM)

•As per available reports 3, 61,791 ha. Area has been covered in forest & non-forest land, 91,715 ha. Area tak-en up for improvement of existing stock for higher pro-ductivity (forest & non-forest areas) under the Mission against targets of 3, 62,848 ha. 69,410 ha. respectively

About the Mission:

•It is a centrally sponsored scheme under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers welfare launched in 2006

•The Mission envisages promoting holistic growth of bamboo sector by adopting area-based, regionally differentiated strategy and to increase the area under bamboo cultivation

•Under the Mission, 108 nos. of markets (Bamboo wholesale & retail markets near villages, etc.) have been established for providing marketing avenues to bamboo farmers for their raw bamboo as well as finished prod-ucts.

Objectives of the Mission:

•To promote the growth of the bamboo sector through as an area based regionally differentiated strategy

•To increase the coverage of area under bamboo in po-tential areas, with improved varieties to enhance yields

•To promote marketing of bamboo and bamboo based handicrafts

•To establish convergence and synergy among stake-holders for the development of bamboo

•To promote, develop and disseminate technologies through a seamless blend of traditional wisdom and modern scientific knowledge.

•To generate employment opportunities for skilled and unskilled persons, especially unemployed youths.

Importance of Bamboo:

•Bamboo is essentially a type of grass that more than 300 ethnic groups in the northeast have traditionally been using in every stages of life, from birth to death, besides it being a delicacy.

•Bamboo plays an important role in terms of food stuff nutrients and livelihood related ecological security

•Bamboo sector can extend an important contribution in employment creation, to provide unabated livelihood means to the rural weaker sections and for abolition of poverty as permanent and renewable natural resource in the perspective of its constant development.

•India’s 13% forest area is comprised of bamboo. More than 137 species of bamboo is grown in the country which is used for 1500 diversified utilities.

Major Drawback of Bamboo cultivation:

•Bamboo often called as ‘Green Gold’ has often been in focus for wrong reasons

•The flowering of bamboo every 50-55 years leads to dramatic increase in the population of rats that destroy crops triggering famine, locally called Mautam


JIGYASA Programme

What is the issue?

•Ministry of Human Resource and Development has launched student-scientist connect programme ‘JIGYA-SA’.

About the Programme:

•“JIGYASA” is one of the major initiative taken up by CSIR at national level, during its Platinum Jubilee Cele-bration Year

•Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), has joined hands with Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS) to implement this programme.

•The “JIGYASA” would inculcate the culture of inquisi-tiveness on one hand and scientific temper on the other, amongst the school students and their teachers.

•The Programme is expected to connect 1151 Kend-riya Vidyalayas with 38 National Laboratories of CSIR targeting 100,000 students and nearly 1000 teachers annually.

•The program will also enable the students and teach-ers to practically live the theoretical concepts taught in science by visiting CSIR laboratories and by participat-ing in mini-science projects.

•The model of engagements is through activities such as Student Residential Programmes, Scientists as Teach-ers and Teachers as Scientists, Lab specific activities / Onsite Experiments, Visits of Scientists to Schools/Out-reach Programmes, Science Exhibitions, Teacher Work-shops and Tinkering Laboratories etc

Jio Parsi phase-II campaign launched

What is the issue?

•Government has launched second phase of Jio Parsi scheme which to support Parsi community in India

About Jiyo Parsi Scheme:

•Jiyo Parsi scheme is a Central Sector Scheme for con-taining population decline of Parsis in India

•“Jiyo Parsi Publicity Phase-1” was initiated in 2013 for containing the declining trend of population of the Parsi community and reverses it to bring their population above the threshold level.

•The main objective of the “Jiyo Parsi” scheme is to re-verse the declining trend of Parsi population by adopt-ing a scientific protocol and structured interventions, stabilize their population and increase the population of Parsis in India

•The concept of the campaign was conceived and pro-moted by Parzor foundation, Bombay Parsi Punchayet, the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) and the feder-ation of Zoroastrian Anjumans of India.

•It urged Parsi couples who were facing difficulties in conceiving, to get medical help under the Jiyo Parsi scheme.

•The scheme also counsels Parsi couples on the impor-tance of having multiple children at a young age and urges them to diagnose and treat infertility, besides convincing singles to get married at the “correct” age.

•“Parzor Foundation was an important link between the Parsi community and the government in the success of “Jiyo Parsi” scheme

Outcomes of Phase-1:

•The ‘Jiyo Parsi’ (Live Parsi) campaign was launched three years ago in 2014, to address the issue of dwin-dling population of India’s Parsi community.

•The campaign has been credited with adding 101 ba-bies to the otherwise declining community over the last three years.

•The last 2011 census put the number of Indian Parsis at 57,264, dropping from 114,000 in 1941. “Population of Parsis declines by around 10 per cent every decennial census.

t“Having 101 babies in three years is an 18 per cent rise over the birth rate of 200 per year


UDAY covers 97% of Dis-

com Debts: Centre Why in news? •86% of restructurable debt revamped.

•Government announced that 97% of total outstanding debts of all state power distribution companies have been covered under the Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yoja-na.•So far around 86% of restructurable debt has been revamped under this scheme.

UDAY Scheme: •Ministry of Power, Government of India launched Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana (UDAY) which was approved by Union Cabinet.

Objectives of the scheme: •Scheme envisages following concerned to DISCOMS

1.Financial turnaround

2.Operational improvement

3.Reduction in cost of generation of power

4.Development of renewable energy

5.Energy efficiency and conservation.

Benefits to participating states •Increased supply of domestic coal, Allocation of coal linkages at notified prices, Coal price rationalization, Coal linkage rationalization & allowing coal swaps, Sup-ply of washed & crushed coal, Additional coal at notified prices etc

Andhra Pradesh to name PDS outlets

as village malls, bring in private sector Why in news?

•Andhra Pradesh CM wants to rename Public Distribu-tion Systems (PDS) and bring in private sector groups to run them.

What’s the idea?

•Renaming PDS to village malls will help bringing more products which can be sold at 20 percent lesser price than the open market.

What is a village mall?

•It is similar to ration store having more products with cheaper prices than the open market.

Village Malls

•As an experiment, Department of Civil supplies asked Reliance group to set up village malls in four places in Vijayawada and Guntur to check if people are receptive to the idea.

•All PDS have electronic point of sale systems to dis-tribute rice and other commodities. The same would be implemented in village malls.

Criticism

•Renaming the ration shops into village malls is part of hand covering PDS outlets to corporate firms.

•Handing over the ration shops to corporate is nothing but depriving food security to the poor.

•Andhra government using public money to help corpo-rate sector.

Interested Corporates

•The groups like Reliance. Walmart and Future group showed interest in supplying stocks


5 States and one UT sign pact with centre on e-Market place

What is the issue?

•This platform aims to ensure transparency, curb cor-ruption.

•In spirit of cooperative federalism 5 states and one UT adopted central governments initiative e-Market place (GeM).

•States signed an MOU with the centre include Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Assam, Gujarat, Arunachal Pradesh and Puducherry.

•This initiative aims to ensure the public procurement of goods and services in India.

•This online platform is created for transparency in pro-curement process and to eliminate corruption.

About GeM (Government e-Market place)

•Government created one stop Government e-Market-place (GeM) to facilitate on line procurement of com-mon use Goods & Services required by various Govern-ment Departments / Organizations / PSUs.

•GeM will enhance transparency, efficiency and speed in public procurement.

•It will also provide the tools of e-bidding and reverse e-auction as well as demand aggregation to facilitate the government users to achieve the best value for the money.


Make in India yet to spur manufacturing,

says panel What is the issue?

•The Parliament’s Standing Committee on Commerce has questioned the country’s low manufacturing growth despite initiatives such as Make In India, Startup India and FDI reforms

•The committee had expressed concerns about manu-facturing growth averaging just 1.6% in the five years till 2015-16 and a 0.5% contraction in the sector in the first 9 months of FY17,

Make in India programme:

•The ‘Make in India’ programme aims at promoting In-dia as an important investment destination and a global hub for manufacturing, design and innovation.

•The ‘Make in India’ initiative does not target manufac-turing sector alone, but also aims at promoting entre-preneurship in the country.

•The initiative is further aimed at creating a conducive environment for investment, modern and efficient in-frastructure, opening up new sectors for foreign invest-ment and forging a partnership between government and industry through positive mindset.

•25 sectors have been identified under the initiative such as Automobiles, Aviation, Biotechnology, chemi-cals, construction, Food processing, Mining, tourism and hospitality etc

The four pillars of Make in India are

1.New Processes,

2.New Infrastructure,

3.New Sectors and

4.New Mindset.

Pradhan Mantri Vaya Vandana Yojana

(PMVVY): What is the issue?

•Government has launched new scheme to protect elderly persons aged 60 and above

When was the scheme launched?

•The scheme was launched on 8th August 2017

What is the objective of the scheme?

•To provide social security during old age and to pro-tect elderly persons aged 60 and above against future fall in their interest income due to uncertain income conditions

Highlights of the scheme:

•The scheme enables old age income security for senior citizens through provision of assured pension/return linked to the subscription amount based on govern-ment guarantee to Life Insurance Corporation of India

•It provides an assured return of 8% per annum pay-able monthly for 10 years

•The difference between assured return of 8% per annum would be borne by GOI as a subsidy on annual basis

•Pension is payable at the end of each period during the policy tenure of 10 years as per the frequency of monthly/quarterly. half yearly/yearly as chosen by sub-scriber at the time of purchase

•Minimum purchase price under the scheme is Rs.1,50,000/- for a minimum pension of Rs. 1,000/- per month and the maximum purchase price is Rs.7,50,000/- for a maximum pension of Rs.5,000/- per month.

•The scheme is exempted from Goods and Services Tax

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